AIFS Abroad

AIFS Study Abroad in Barcelona, Spain
Summer 2012
Course Descriptions

   

Recommended credits are shown in parentheses.

Spanish Language Courses

Spanish Language Courses
Course Code and Credits: Spanish Language 100 (4)(6)
Course Title: Elementary Spanish
Course Description:
Students with no previous Spanish study or with only one semester in college usually place at this level. Focus is on functional uses of the language as well as grammar, lexicon and cultural themes. Included are introductions, giving and receiving information, daily routine, expressing likes and dislikes, indicative (both regular and irregular verbs), past perfect and preterit tenses, reflexive verbs and reading text aloud.
Course Code and Credits: Spanish Language 200 (4)(6)
Course Title: Intermediate Spanish
Course Description:
Students who have studied Spanish throughout high school and continued with one semester in college, or students who have 2 to 4 semesters in college, usually place into this level. It concentrates on overall communicative skills: perfect tenses, preterit versus imperfect, telling stories, the future and the conditional, the uses of the present subjunctive mood, positive and negative imperative, extraction of information from documents, dictation, formal letter writing (verb tenses).
Course Code and Credits: Spanish Language 300 (4)(6)
Course Title: Advanced Spanish
Course Description:
Students with at least 6 semesters of college Spanish, experience living in a Spanish-speaking country or Spanish study on a regular basis since elementary school usually place at this level. Grammar work is to refine and develop communicative skills: the impersonal “se”, adjectives, nouns and verbs, indicative and subjunctive tenses, spelling and accents, arguments/debates, expressing degrees of possibilities, cause, consequence and mode of action, formal and informal letters. Cultural topics include the post-Franco transition to democracy, present Spanish society, a newspaper workshop, Gaudí and the “streets of Barcelona” and reading “Sin noticias de Gurb” by Eduardo Mendoza.

Content Courses

Courses taught in English
Course Code and Credits: Business 301 (3)
Course Title: Business in Europe
Course Description:
By the end of this course, students will have a greater understanding of the political and legal framework of Europe as well as knowledge of the economic and institutional environment. Policy making in the E.U. and its repercussions in the European business environment will also be covered. The course aims to help students understand the functions of the E.U. and the regulations within which companies must operate.
Course Code and Credits: History 305 (3)
Course Title: Understanding Barcelona: the City and its History
Course Description:
This course explores the history of Barcelona from past to present by examining the changes in the physical landscape of the city. A broad approach is taken which not only focuses on written text, but also includes the visible historical identity in buildings and traditions.
Course Code and Credits: Religious Studies/Sociology 307 (3)
Course Title: Religion and Identity: Islamic and Jewish Culture in Spain
Course Description:
Discusses the importance and the effect of the Mediterranean’s three civilizations (Muslim, Christian and Jewish) on Spain’s history, tradition, language and culture. The course highlights these societies’ methods of interaction and mutual influence. The focus of this course is on cross-faith communication and how this is portrayed by modern historians depending on contemporary concerns.